Mountaintop
by Lack of Existence
Summary: It was stupid, he realizes, to try what he did, when he was specifically warned by his Superior to stay away from the area until things cleared up. A little oneshot for XemSai day.


**Mountaintop  
**_author's note: A quick thing I wrote for XemSai day. S'only appropriate, right?  
disclaimer: gtfo of my house, attorneys, because I don't own it.  
warnings: light XemSai, a very faint Soriku if you squint really hard  
1.17.10 - edits have been made..._

* * *

Eyes slipping shut, slowly, fluttering open again before repeating the process. _Cold…_

He knows that he can't let himself sleep, not when he's well aware of the fact that he wouldn't wake up. Fluffy white powder is surrounding him, pressing in on him, _suffocating _him, almost; still, more of it is drifting to settle on his jet black cloak and soft blue hair.

It was stupid, he realizes, to try what he did, when he was _specifically _warned by his Superior to stay away from the area until things cleared up. Hearing an uncharacteristic undertone of worry in his leader's voice was what had driven him to attempt to take on the enraged dragons of this aptly-named Land of Dragons.

The frozen mountain peaks were rumbling with the fights between the mighty creatures, and he, desperately wanting to earn the approval of his Superior, tried to end the battle between demigods. Their presence was doing nothing for his… and his Superior's… purpose, after all.

He didn't expect to be struck down, tossed against a hard cliff side and left alone to die in the snow. Though he isn't fading, he feels _damn _near close to it, a freezing ache seeping into his limbs and clutching his heart – _no, there is no heart in that chest of his._

Just as his eyes are finally submitting to the intense will of his body, drifting shut, he hears a dark portal bursting into existence not a few feet away from him. The last thing he sees is a flash of silver hair and amber eyes before his world goes black, managing to mutter out a single word. "Xem… nas…"

The silver-haired one – Xemnas – crouches down beside his subordinate, reaching out to brush a few snowflakes from the pale face, barely brushing against the X-shaped scar across it. "Saix," he acknowledges, though he knows that the blue-haired man cannot hear him. Nothing more passes Xemnas's lips as he realizes that Saix is unconsciously shifting towards his touch. _Warmth…? _No, a Nobody's skin is always cold… there is no heart to pump blood and therefore no blood to warm it.

A long-lost echo of emotion unexpectedly flits through Xemnas, and he blinks once, slowly, before experimentally (that's right, just another scientific test, though what he's trying to figure out is a mystery to him) pressing his palm against Saix's cheek. Giving a sound that sounded something like a dog's whimper, the unconscious berserker curls up a little tighter.

…The situation somehow led to Xemnas laying himself down in the snow beside Saix, hugging the Luna Diviner to his chest. Xemnas doesn't mind as Saix seeks 'heat' from his Superior – though why Saix isn't waking up is almost puzzling to the Superior.

Eventually, though, Xemnas stops caring so much about _why _and whispers something in Saix's pointed ear about obeying his orders, before pressing a kiss to VII's forehead and resting his chin atop the blue-haired head.

As he drifts off into some kind of sleep, he swears he hears a muttered 'my apologies, Superior' before Saix cuddles a little closer.

-o-o-

"Man, it's cold up here!" a brunet teenager exclaims, though the complaint doesn't hold anything more than a cheerful statement. He hefts a large silver and gold key over his shoulder, grinning broadly at the still, white landscape.

"Gawrsh, it really is, isn't it, Sora?" a strange, humanoid dog agrees, his black head tilting to the side as he surveyed the huge snowdrifts.

"Stop pointing out the obvious, Goofy, Sora!" a much shorter, white-feathered, anthropomorphic duck snaps, glaring at his two traveling companions.

"Aw, cheer up, Donald." Sora's smile widens as he fixes his blue-eyed stare on the duck. "You're just cold. All we need to do is see if the dragons have calmed down, and then we can leave!"

"Mulan said to come up this way, right?" Goofy questions, lifting a finger to point at a path twisting up the crags. "Let's go!"

The three traipse through the thick mounds of snow, rounding a bend to come to a more wide open expanse of untouched, glittering flakes.

"We can split up," Donald says stiffly, almost neck-high in the bright white drifts. "I'll go this way. Goofy, you head up that way, and Sora…" He breaks off when he sees Sora charging off in some random direction, enthusiastic as always. A sigh from the duck. "Why do I even bother?"

Sending Donald a sympathetic look, Goofy trudges through the piles of white fluff, trying to ignore the wetness seeping into his clothes from the soft flakes. Grumbling to himself, Donald makes his way with difficulty in a different direction.

Sora hops through the snow, kicking up flurries and letting a laugh escape him. It was nice for him to be able to just run, no worries of Heartless or Nobodies—

…scratch that last statement. His blue eyes catch a flash of black, and he's immediately alert and silent as he slowly turns to face where he glimpsed the color.

A blue-haired Organization member – confirmed by the cloak – is lying in the snow, appearing to be almost dead. Quietly, Sora creeps toward the Nobody, ready to get the jump on him; the crunching beneath his feet is almost unbearable as he tries to keep quiet.

However, when he gets a closer look, he stops dead. The member is not alone. No, beside the first one is a Nobody with silver hair and tanned skin, his arms wrapped around the pale one with blue hair. In response to the affectionate gesture, the pale one has tucked his arms between their chests, head nuzzled beneath the silver-haired one's chin.

_Looks comfortable, _is Sora's first thought, his mind drifting – not for the first time – to Riku and how the two of them had once shared an embrace like that when they were younger. Suddenly, he shakes his head; he shouldn't be thinking about his missing best friend, he should be thinking about eliminating those two!

But when he raises his Keyblade, he can't bring himself to stab it down onto the pale one, who has just shifted a little and sighed, tilting his head to press his face against the silver-haired one's neck. Sora just gently lowers his Keyblade, letting out a long gust of air.

"Sora! Did you find anything? Usually you can't pay attention enough to stay in one spot so long!" Donald calls in his strange voice from the opposite side of the plain. This is enough to snap Sora out of his reverie.

Ignoring the insult, he just grins, sparing the two Nobodies a glance before hurrying back to his companions. "Nah, nothing. Nothing at all."

* * *

_...review, I guess. Or don't. Whichever. I really don't care..._


End file.
